Haunted by The Shipping Forecast

Posted by: throbnorth on 11 February 2002

A long shot I know, but after hearing the other day on R4's Today prog that Finnistaire was being renamed Fitzroy, my mind wandered back a few years to a wonderful piece of music I once heard on R3 while driving home from work, which comprised a haunting [probably synth] melody with samples from the shipping forecast woven through it. It was about twenty minutes long, and composed in honour of some anniversary of the forecast itself. There were exhibitions etc. at the time, I seem to remember. Anyway, does anyone remember it, or know if there's a recording? A web search has thrown up the name Justin Madden, but that's about as far as I can get. Just the sort of thing that you'd hear on Late Junction, but before I whip out the Basildon Bond and drop a line to Verity, I'd like to be able to offer her a little more information.

And just what is it about a certain piece of music that produces that special tingle and makes people write to radio stations? I'm thinking along the lines of that bitin the Allegri Miserere that got Mozart so worked up that he kept going to the mass until he could write it out from memory. I suspect it's something to do with unexpected chord progressions, but I don't have the expertise to give any technical explanation. Vaughan Williams rather had the knack of it [Lark Ascending, Thomas Tallis] Any other examples?

Posted on: 11 February 2002 by dvdkeogh

I didn't hear the piece on radio 3, but I know that Rick Stein's TV series made use of a similar style of music - synth, femal voice, shipping forcast. If I remember correctly, the end titles attributed it to the band "Crocodile".

Maybe this is the same piece/band???

Good luck hunting

Dave

Posted on: 11 February 2002 by throbnorth

Could be...... though in my mind there isn't any vocal except the s. forecast itself..... to clarify my earlier post, it was the sort of thing that Eno would have had on his Obscure label [bit like the Titanic thing ... Gavin Bryars - ish]. Never watch Rick Stein, but will keep an eye out on UKFood, where I'm sure it will surface sometime or another.